It was posted a while ago that if the plane was > x% (50%?) elite, the GAs are supposed to board by status level before moving to rows. I would complain about EWR-ORD boarding b/c that's totally improper. I would have also boarded when the boarded the first set of Y passengers, no matter where I was seated if they did that.

As for the bus, they do the same thing at IAH's B-terminal (the crummy, lower level gates... b74?). I don't like it because you might not get overhead space, but there's not really a good way to do it, other than to redesign the terminal.